When the disease dries up the grafted vine, which the husbandman has carefully and long cultivated, he cuts it off and throws it into the fire, and in its place he transplants and grafts a wild one.

When sons, forgetting all their father's love, rebel against their father, what will the father do? He will drive his sons out of the house, and instead of them he will adopt his hirelings.

This is what happens in nature, and this is what happens in people. Unbelievers say that this happens according to the laws of nature and human laws. But this is not what the faithful say. Those who have parted the veils of natural and human laws and looked into the mystery of eternal freedom into the fiery eyes speak differently. They say: "This happens according to the will of God for our admonition." Yes, God writes this with His finger, and only those who know how to read the manuscript of God, written by fire and the Spirit in the objects and events of nature and in the objects and events of human life, only they understand the meaning of everything. Those before whose eyes nature and human life flicker like a huge heap of typographic type, letters without spirit and meaning, speak of chance and assert: "Everything that happens to us and around us happens by chance." By this they mean that this whole gigantic heap of letters moves and mixes of its own accord, and that from such a mishmash one or another event is formed. If our God were not merciful and compassionate, He would laugh at such madness of earthly interpreters of the world and life. But there is one who laughs maliciously at this madness: this is an evil spirit, an enemy of the human race, who has neither mercy nor compassion for people. When a goose slaps on a variegated carpet spread on the grass, it may think that all the patterns and colors on the carpet are somehow piled up by chance, and the carpet has grown out of the ground by itself, just as grass, according to goose reasoning, grows from the ground by chance. But the weaver who wove the carpet and dotted it with patterns knows that it did not come from somewhere by chance, just as she knows why the patterns and colors are placed in this way. Only the weaver knows how to read and interpret the carpet woven by her hand - the weaver and those to whom she tells. Thus the unbelievers slap uselessly on the precursory carpet of this world and talk about accidents. Only God, Who wove this world, knows what every thread in the world's fabric means. And he knows whom God vouchsafes and tells him. The clairvoyant Isaiah writes: "For thus saith the High and Exalted One, Who lives forever, His Holy Name: I dwell in the high heavens, and in the sanctuary, and also with the contrite and the contrite in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15). This means that God lives on earth only with those who are contrite in heart and humble in spirit. And with whom God lives, He reveals the mysteries of the world and life and the spiritual depths of all His scripture, contained in things and events. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David were contrite in heart and humble in spirit, and therefore the Lord dwelt with them and promised to be with their descendants as long as they remained contrite in heart and humble in spirit. But people who are proud of frequent communion with God fall into an abyss worse than those who have neither any knowledge of the true God, nor communion with Him. The most obvious example of this is shown to us by the people of Israel, that is, the descendants of the great and God-pleasing forefathers whom we have mentioned. Proud of communion with the true God, this people began to despise all other nations as tares on the threshing floor of God. But by doing so he ruined himself, for because of the pride that blinded him, of all that God had revealed to him through His prophets and saints, he remembered and left only one, namely, that he was God's chosen people. The spirit and meaning of the Old Testament revelation of God completely disappeared for him, and the Holy Scriptures danced before the eyes of this people as a heap of incomprehensible words. And by the time when our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world with a new revelation, the Jewish people had not only descended in their blindness and ignorance of the will of God to the level of the pagan nations, but in their darkening of spiritual sight and hardness of heart they were in many ways inferior to the latter. Today's Gospel reading shows us the judgment of the Savior Himself about this. It describes an incident that revealed the health of the sick and the sickness of the healthy, the faith of the pagans and the unbelief of those who boasted of calling themselves chosen and faithful. And this Gospel passage was written for admonition for all times and for all generations, including our time and our generation. This admonition is as sharp as a cherubic sword, clear as the sun, and as a mountain flower, fresh and striking. Let it frighten us with its sharpness, enlighten us with its clarity, and strike us in our present spiritual negligence and negligence. And let him especially remind us: we, Christians, must not forget and not be proud of the fact that we go to church, pray to God and confess Christ, so that before the judgment of God it does not turn out that those who are outside the Church have more sincere faith and more good works.

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him and asked Him: "Lord! My servant lies at home in paralysis, and suffers terribly. A captain, or centurion, or centurion headed a military garrison at Capernaum, the chief city on the Lake of Galilee. Whether he was directly subordinate to the Roman authorities or to Herod Antipas is quite immaterial, although he was most likely a Roman officer; The main thing is that he was a pagan and not a Jew. This is the first Roman officer mentioned in the Gospel as having believed in Christ. The second was the centurion, the commander of the guard at the Cross of Christ, who, seeing the terrible manifestations of nature that took place at the death of the Lord, exclaimed: "Truly He was the Son of God" (Matt. 27:54). Then it speaks of Cornelius, a centurion from the city of Caesarea, who was baptized by the Apostle Peter. All of them, although they were pagans, saw the truth and life in Christ and believed in Him, in contrast to the whole horde of extremely learned but blinded Jewish scribes.

My servant lies at home in paralysis, and suffers terribly. Not really a servant, but rather, according to the Greek word of the Gospel, a lad, or an altar boy; and probably this servant was a soldier, since the petitioner is an officer. The illness was terrible: he was paralyzed, and the altar boy was already near death, as the Evangelist Luke relates. And the centurion treasured it, and therefore, when he heard that Jesus had entered Capernaum, he tried to personally appear before Him and ask for help from his dear servant.

Whoever reads the descriptions of this event in the two holy Evangelists, Matthew and Luke, at first glance it will seem that there is a great difference between them. For Matthew writes that the centurion himself personally approached Christ and asked Him, and Luke writes that he first sent the elders of the Jews and set forth his request through them, and then, when the Lord was not far from his house, he sent his friends to tell the Lord: Do not labor, Lord! for I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; "But speak the word, and my servant shall recover." And indeed, there is a difference in these two descriptions, but there is no contradiction. And the whole difference lies in the fact that Matthew omits and does not mention the two representations that the centurion had previously sent to the Lord; Luke, however, omits and does not mention the fact that at last the centurion himself, with all his contrition and humility before the majesty of Christ, came out to meet Him. The fact that the evangelists complement each other so beautifully evokes only joy and admiration in a spiritual person. For, according to Chrysostom, if all the events were described by all the Evangelists in the same way, they would say that the Evangelists copied from each other. Why then would there be four Gospels and four evangelists? At every earthly judgment two witnesses are needed, and when they testify the case is considered reliable, and God has given us two witnesses twice in the person of the four evangelists, so that those who wish to be saved may believe as easily and as quickly as possible, and those who are perishing may have no excuse. And God also gave us four evangelists for this purpose, although He could set forth all the wisdom of our salvation through one, so that we, seeing how they complement each other, may learn from their example, understanding that we also are predestined to complement each other in this life, according to the various spiritual gifts received from God, like the members of one body, which help one another in their own measure of each member, whereby the body receives an increase (Ephesians 4:16).

Thus, having two descriptions before us, we can clearly imagine the picture of the event in question. Hearing about the glory and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and at the same time feeling his human sinfulness and unworthiness, the centurion first asked the Jewish elders to go to the Lord and call Him. He was not at all sure that the Lord would want to come. He could think to himself, "Behold, I am an idolater and a sinner, He is clairvoyant, and He will see my sinfulness as soon as He hears my name, and who knows if He will want to come into my house? It is better for me to send the Jews to him, and if he refuses, let him refuse them, and if he agrees to come... we'll see." And when he learned that the Lord had agreed, he was all agitated and confused. Now he sends his friends to tell Christ not to enter the house of him, a sinner and unworthy, but only let him speak the word, and the servant will recover. But as soon as his friends approached the Lord and told Him what the centurion had instructed, the centurion himself came. Overcome with great excitement, he could not stay at home. Behold, he cometh under his roof. No, no: his friends do not yet know who He is, and will not be able to tell Him what is needed. And the captain could already know about the Jewish elders that they did not love Christ and did not have faith in Him. And therefore he must personally hasten to meet Him, especially since now he knows that the Lord will not refuse him and thus will not humiliate him, an officer, before the people.

True, the Jews did say a good word to Christ about the centurion: he is worthy that You should do this for him, for he loves our people and has built us a synagogue. But all that they said does not touch the essence of things. They evaluate the centurion's kindness by their personal self-interest, which they had from him. He loves our people. Other Roman officers and officials despised the Jews. This one loved them and built a synagogue. They want to say: "I spent my money and saved ours. He built us the necessary prayer room, which otherwise we ourselves would have had to build and pay for." They speak as if they are talking to Caiaphas and not to Christ. Christ did not answer them, but silently went with them. Then the centurion's friends approached Christ, and finally the centurion himself.

Meeting Christ face to face, the centurion, of course, repeated everything that had already been communicated to the Lord. Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." See how He who has authority and power speaks! He does not say, "Let us see!" and does not ask him, as others do, "Do you believe that I can do this?" because he already sees the centurion's heart and knows his faith. And the Lord speaks to him with a determination with which no physician has ever dared to speak. And so decisively and clearly He answered the centurion intentionally, in order to provoke his subsequent answer in the presence of the Jews. For when God creates anything, He does it in such a way that it may benefit not only but many. Christ wanted to use this event in many ways: to heal the sick, and to reveal the great faith of the centurion, and to reproach the Jews for their unbelief, and to pronounce an important prophecy about the Kingdom: about those who are sure that they will enter it, but will not enter; and of those who do not think to enter in, but will enter.

And the centurion, answering, said, Lord! I am not worthy that Thou should come under my roof, but speak only the word, and my servant shall recover. What a great difference there is between this ardent faith of the heart and the cold legalistic beliefs of the Pharisees! The difference is no less than between a burning fire and a fire drawn on paper. When one of the Pharisees called Christ into his house to partake of food, he thought in his legalistic pride that it was not the Lord who honored him and his house by entering under his roof, but that he himself was honoring the Lord by inviting Him. And in this pride and arrogance, the Pharisee neglected even the accepted customs of hospitality: he did not give his Guest water to wash his feet, did not greet him with a kiss, and did not anoint His head with fragrant oil (see Luke 7:44-46). And how contrite and humble is this "pagan" before the Lord, who was not given to know either Moses or the prophets, and to whom his natural mind served as the only lamp for discerning truth and falsehood, good and evil! He knows that it is an honor for every other person in Capernaum to enter his house, but in Christ he sees not an ordinary man, but God Himself. Wherefore he saith, I am not worthy that Thou should come under my roof. How strong is faith in Christ and His power! Speak only the word, and the sickness will disappear, and my servant will rise! Even the Apostle Peter himself could not acquire such a strong faith for a long, long time. The centurion feels in the presence of Christ the presence of heaven itself, heavenly fire and heavenly light. Why should such a fire enter under its roof, when one spark is enough? Why bring the whole sun into the house when one ray is enough? If the centurion had known the Holy Scriptures as we know them today, he would have said to Christ: "You, Who created the world and man with the word, can heal the sick with a word! Your smallest word is enough, for it is stronger than fire and brighter than a ray of sunshine, just say the word." Oh, how the strong faith of this pagan should shame today many of us, who know the Holy Scriptures a hundred times better, but also have a hundred times less faith!

However, the centurion does not confine himself to these words, but continues, in order to explain his faith in the power of Jesus: "For I am a subject man, but having soldiers under my command, I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and come; And to my servant, Do this, and he does. What is a centurion? He has a hundred people under his command, and he himself is subordinate to another hundred. But those who obey him are obliged to obey him. And if he, a man subject to authority, who personally has little power, can command his soldiers and servants, how much more can Christ, who is subject to no one and Himself is the supreme authority for nature and people. And if so many people submit to the weak word of the centurion, how can all things not be subject to the word of God, which is as strong as life, sharp as a sword, and terrible as a scourge (Deuteronomy 32:46-47; John 12:50; Ephesians 6:17; Proverbs 2:6-7; Job 5:21)? Who are the soldiers of Christ and his servants? Is not life with all creatures the army of Christ? Are not angels, saints, and all God-fearing people soldiers of Christ? And all the powers of nature, death and sickness, are they not servants of Christ? The Lord commands life: "Go into this or that creature," and life goes on. "Come back," and life returns. He gives life, He allows death and sickness, He resurrects and He heals. At His word, the angelic powers bow down like a flame from a strong wind. For He spoke, and was, He commanded, and was created (Psalm 32:9). No one can overcome His powers, just as nothing dares to resist His word. Never did a man speak like this Man (John 7:46). For He did not speak as one who was under authority, but as a Lord, as one who had authority (Matt. 7:29). As such, the centurion asked Him: "Speak only a word, and my servant shall recover." To deliver a paralytic acolyte from illness is a deed that no mortal man on earth can do, but for Christ it is not a great deed. For such a deed, He does not need to trouble Himself and personally go to the centurion's house, He does not need to see the sick, He does not need to take him by the hand and lift him up. Let him just say the word, and the deed will be done. Such were the centurion's thoughts about Christ, and such was his faith in Christ.

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed, and said to those who followed him, "Verily I say unto you, and in Israel I have not found such faith." Why was Christ surprised if He knew in advance what the centurion would answer Him? And did He not Himself evoke such an answer by His unusual words: why was He now surprised? He was amazed, in order to bring to reason those who follow Him. I was surprised to show them what in this world they should be surprised at. He was amazed at the great faith of man, so that He might teach His followers to marvel at the great faith. Truly, nothing in this world is worthy of such wonder as the great faith of man. Christ was not amazed at the beauty of the Lake of Galilee, for what is this beauty worth in comparison with the beauty of heaven, which He knows? And He was never amazed at the wisdom of men, nor at riches, nor at power, for all these are insignificant in comparison with the riches, wisdom, and power known to Him in the Kingdom of God. And He was never amazed at the great concourse of the people to Jerusalem for the feast, for the earthly crowd is insignificant and poor in comparison with the radiant angelic assembly which He beheld from the creation of the world. When others marveled at the beauty of Solomon's temple, He described the destruction of that temple to its foundations. Only great human faith is worthy of wonder. It is the greatest and most beautiful thing on earth. For by faith the slave becomes free, the hireling the son of God, and the mortal man immortal. When righteous Job lay in pus and sores on the ashes left of all his wealth and all his children, his faith in God remained unshaken. And in the midst of pus and sores he cried out: "But I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will raise up from the dust this disintegrating skin of mine at the last day, and I will see God in my flesh." I will see Him myself: my eyes, not the eyes of another, will see Him (Job 19:25-27).

To whom did the Lord express His surprise? Those who follow Him. These are His holy apostles. In order to admonish them, He was amazed. Of course, the other Jews who went with Him to the centurion's house heard these words, with which the Lord expressed His surprise: "Verily I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel." That is, he did not find in the Jewish people, who should have had a stronger faith than all the other nations on earth, for it was to them from the very beginning, through innumerable signs and wonders, and through the fiery words of His prophets, that the Lord God revealed His power and might, His care and love. But in Israel, faith was almost completely exhausted, and the chosen sons rebelled against the Father and were separated from Him in mind and heart, so much so that their minds were blinded and their hearts hardened. Even His apostles in the beginning, including Peter and not to mention Judas, did not have such faith in Christ as this Roman officer; neither the sisters of Lazarus, in whose house Christ often visited, nor His relatives and friends in Nazareth, among whom He grew up, had such faith.

Now the Lord, piercing with His spirit to the end of time, pronounces a prophecy that is sorrowful for the Jews and joyful for the Gentile nations: